Evangeline the Writer
Egbert specifically takes the step of asking Evangeline if she is a writer before baring his soul and confessing his love with the very strong implication being that if there is any indication she holds any desire to be an author, he will cut and run. She says no, but ironically it is his very passion for her that drives her almost immediately to writing a novel based on their relationship.
Parted Ways
A further irony relating to Evangeline’s novel being based upon her relationship with Egbert is its title: Parted Ways. Which is exactly the novel which was inspired by their love causes. Briefly, anyway.
"Frightful Horse-Radish"
The reason that Egbert doesn’t want to marry a writer is because he considers their romances to be examples of low-brown trash and sentimental prose. As it turns out, much of Parted Ways features dialogue spoken by Egbert that Evangeline transferred verbatim into her work of fiction. Egbert is horrified by this “frightful horse-radish” which ironically reveals that he embodies all the negative traits he associates with badly written romance novels by female writers.
Best Seller
Evangeline’s badly written novel only manages to become a best-seller as the result of an ironic publishing quirk. The market up to then had been one preferring more juicy and salacious love stories, but with the market glutted, there was a sudden shift in taste back toward more innocent heroines and sentimental love stories. Lacking any other example, the publishers had only Parted Ways to market and thus it became a monster best seller purely as a result of timing.
The Agent
Evangeline’s signing with a handsome, rakish literary agent is the final straw that causes Egbert and Evangeline to part ways. Ironically, however, he also becomes the mechanism of their reunion through his persistence at his job. His pressure to get Evangeline to produce more stories is what makes her realize she actually hates being a writer and stimulates Egbert to offer his unpublished bad novels as a way to fulfill her contractual obligations.
